Well I have a new Naturopath. The previous one I had in 2013 discovered my food allergies through blood tests. As an aside, I often refer to them as allergies, but they're technically sensitivities. The difference between the two is that true allergies bring about a reaction that is anaphylactic. A sensitivity is one step down from that and still gives major reactions like hives, rashes, difficulty breathing, headaches, etc. An intolerance is even lesser on the scale, though commonly results in mad cramps and diarrhea. Technically there's more to those delineations, but for my purpose I don't need to go into the deep scientific and medical details.
Now I'm trying NAET. Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques is admittedly on the hokey side of treatments. It uses a lot of asian healing techniques like acupuncture. It also uses a test for muscle weakness in the presence of the allergy that can easily be faked by the practitioner. There's another test that uses electrical currents to find meridian points in the body, which supposedly link to chi blockages. Strangely the results from that test were in line with the aforementioned blood test results.
It also brought up another element. Chemical sensitivity. Specifically to formaldehyde. Why does that matter? Formaldehyde is in a lot of things. Toothpastes, though not Tom's of Maine, use it to help kill bacteria. If you kill the helpful bacteria though, you can end up with a leaky gut and problems with yeast.
Formaldehyde is also prevalent in building materials and particle board. I may have mentioned before that I was married for 6.5 years. The entirety of that was spent in renovations. Surely the stress of renovation was a problem in itself, but the constant exposure to formaldehyde and other harsh chemicals could have contributed to making me ill. Throw in a crappy diet and little exercise and I'm not surprised I became allergic to food.
This new naturopath spoke to me on a more scientific level, for the most part. We talked about why yeast consumption often leads to me feeling hungover. It's possible my body converts it to alcohol inside my body. We talked about different metabolic processes. She seems to be someone who doesn't completely believe big pharma is the enemy as some medicines truly are helpful. She advocated getting more "legitimate" tests through my doctor.
Most of all, what she wants to do for treatment mostly makes sense to me. Kill the yeast will super loading my body with good bacteria. We're also going to do an OTC treatment for C. Diff as I have several risk factors for getting it. Other than that I drink a little bit of baking soda in water to get my overly inflamed body to reduce its acidity levels.
She wants my doctor to check for some things that are all in line with my history and my family's history. Mostly vitamin and mineral deficiencies. She's suggested a low-histamine diet.
What's the goal? Either eliminate them totally or get to the point of at least being able to have a treat like a slice of regular pizza once per month.
There hasn't been much that has been alarming suggested. There is an odd thing with NAET about holding jars with your allergens in them and massaging pressure points on the body. Medically there's no reason to think there is anything curative in that, but psychologically I could see it getting your mind to stress less about your allergens. Stress can make an allergic reaction worse than the actual physiological reaction is.
Meditation is seen as hokey by some, yet it's one of the top things recommended to reduce stress.
One hypothesis I don't know how to feel about though. Sleeping beside another human sends me into a panic attack. It doesn't matter their gender or what our relationship is. It's more prevalent if they've drank alcohol that day. She suggested that it could be as they breathe, they are putting more yeast into the air near me and literally making me have a reaction to them. As if dating wasn't hard enough for me.
But she recommended I talk to a counsellor anyway in case there's anything lingering in my past that could be causing the panic on an emotional level.
So what was my previous naturopath like? She gave me supplements with things like casein in them and milk is one of my sensitivities. Every visit with her was ultra expensive. She didn't even try to get the yeast issue under control.
The new one wants to fix the yeast issue and train my body into distinguishing the difference between good yeasts and bad ones.
I'm going to give this a try. Pizza is worth it. Cheese is worth it. I even miss eating eggs. Sometimes I crave milk... Yeah, I'm so done with this food problem.
Even if it seems a little crazy, pizza is worth it.
Ciao,
R~
Now I'm trying NAET. Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques is admittedly on the hokey side of treatments. It uses a lot of asian healing techniques like acupuncture. It also uses a test for muscle weakness in the presence of the allergy that can easily be faked by the practitioner. There's another test that uses electrical currents to find meridian points in the body, which supposedly link to chi blockages. Strangely the results from that test were in line with the aforementioned blood test results.
It also brought up another element. Chemical sensitivity. Specifically to formaldehyde. Why does that matter? Formaldehyde is in a lot of things. Toothpastes, though not Tom's of Maine, use it to help kill bacteria. If you kill the helpful bacteria though, you can end up with a leaky gut and problems with yeast.
Formaldehyde is also prevalent in building materials and particle board. I may have mentioned before that I was married for 6.5 years. The entirety of that was spent in renovations. Surely the stress of renovation was a problem in itself, but the constant exposure to formaldehyde and other harsh chemicals could have contributed to making me ill. Throw in a crappy diet and little exercise and I'm not surprised I became allergic to food.
This new naturopath spoke to me on a more scientific level, for the most part. We talked about why yeast consumption often leads to me feeling hungover. It's possible my body converts it to alcohol inside my body. We talked about different metabolic processes. She seems to be someone who doesn't completely believe big pharma is the enemy as some medicines truly are helpful. She advocated getting more "legitimate" tests through my doctor.
Most of all, what she wants to do for treatment mostly makes sense to me. Kill the yeast will super loading my body with good bacteria. We're also going to do an OTC treatment for C. Diff as I have several risk factors for getting it. Other than that I drink a little bit of baking soda in water to get my overly inflamed body to reduce its acidity levels.
She wants my doctor to check for some things that are all in line with my history and my family's history. Mostly vitamin and mineral deficiencies. She's suggested a low-histamine diet.
What's the goal? Either eliminate them totally or get to the point of at least being able to have a treat like a slice of regular pizza once per month.
There hasn't been much that has been alarming suggested. There is an odd thing with NAET about holding jars with your allergens in them and massaging pressure points on the body. Medically there's no reason to think there is anything curative in that, but psychologically I could see it getting your mind to stress less about your allergens. Stress can make an allergic reaction worse than the actual physiological reaction is.
Meditation is seen as hokey by some, yet it's one of the top things recommended to reduce stress.
One hypothesis I don't know how to feel about though. Sleeping beside another human sends me into a panic attack. It doesn't matter their gender or what our relationship is. It's more prevalent if they've drank alcohol that day. She suggested that it could be as they breathe, they are putting more yeast into the air near me and literally making me have a reaction to them. As if dating wasn't hard enough for me.
But she recommended I talk to a counsellor anyway in case there's anything lingering in my past that could be causing the panic on an emotional level.
So what was my previous naturopath like? She gave me supplements with things like casein in them and milk is one of my sensitivities. Every visit with her was ultra expensive. She didn't even try to get the yeast issue under control.
The new one wants to fix the yeast issue and train my body into distinguishing the difference between good yeasts and bad ones.
I'm going to give this a try. Pizza is worth it. Cheese is worth it. I even miss eating eggs. Sometimes I crave milk... Yeah, I'm so done with this food problem.
Even if it seems a little crazy, pizza is worth it.
Ciao,
R~
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